Britain's Last Music Retailer Goes Bankrupt

Ailing music and entertainment retailer HMV is to suspend the trading of its shares and enter administration, the U.K. equivalent of Chapter 11 bank protection, the company has confirmed. The troubled music company is the U.K.'s last major high street music retailer and has over 230 brick and mortar HMV stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland along with 9 Fopp outlets. It also has a 50% holding in U.K. digital retailer 7digital, which powers its own digital offering HMV.com.

HMV closed its U.S. outlets a few years ago. The chain had several large stores in Manhattan.